This is a EX+ quality SBD recording, made better sounding through a new digital transfer and the EQ-ing efforts of Rory Vanark. (Dude!) What really makes this recording shine, for me, is to go back in time and listen to spare, lean arrangements of the songs that would in a few years become Shake Hands With Shorty, and 51 Phantom, to hear the NMA’s young and raw, long before they became the seasoned musicians they are today.
I particularly enjoyed an almost 9-minute take of Shake Em On Down with a long slide jam in the middle, also an 11-minute offering of I’m In Jail/Preachin’ Blues. There is an slow-ambling and wonderfully understated performance of KC Jones, and a slow, shuffing Drinking Muddy Water. Really, the only flaw in the recording is the intro cut of Coal Black Mattie, but so what?? That’s all part of the magic of a live recording and detracts nothing from the enjoyment therein. My recommendation, DL this recording and get the headphones out, crank it way up and enjoy the way-back machine. Four stars and a big hell-yeah from this NMA fan.
.Steven Hildebrand.
"Being an adult is like being in a Quentin Tarantino movie. It starts out cool. There's lots of swearing. Then it gets confusing as f*** and everyone dies.